


some summer night, i hope i see you again

by maviswrites



Series: Missing "Wizards" Moments [2]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Jim Lake Jr. Needs a Hug (Tales of Arcadia), Kanjigar is actually a half decent father in this, Minor Jim Lake Jr/Claire Nuñez, Missing Scene, Troll Jim Lake Jr., Wizards Spoilers (Tales of Arcadia), Young Draal (Tales of Arcadia), i know they were pressed for time but it's criminal we didn't get to see them mourning draal, i really wanted to see him interacting with jim so that's why he's here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:01:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28035828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maviswrites/pseuds/maviswrites
Summary: A stolen moment during "Killahead, Part One," where the trolls and knights of Camelot train before the battle. Jim and Claire observe the past versions of their fallen friends.
Relationships: Draal & Jim Lake Jr. (Tales of Arcadia), Draal & Kanjigar (Tales of Arcadia), Jim Lake Jr. & Kanjigar (Tales of Arcadia), Jim Lake Jr./Claire Nuñez
Series: Missing "Wizards" Moments [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053761
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	some summer night, i hope i see you again

**Author's Note:**

> I know Wizards had a lot to pack into just ten episodes, but c'mon. We _deserved_ this scene. The trauma of seeing your dead friends in the past, when they don't even know who you are? Mr. Del Toro, I have a bone to pick here.
> 
> Title from Dermot Kennedy's "To All My Friends," because it seemed appropriate.

Before, there had been no time to reconcile it. He’d been running for his life, trying to convince Blinky and Dictatious, even fighting off an AAARRRGGHH!!! who’d never heard of the word “pacifist.” He’d been busy talking Callista into helping him save the trolls of Dwoza.

Now, things are a bit calmer. The trolls have agreed to train with Arthur’s forces, in exchange for Merlin’s "great weapon." Jim reaches for the amulet at his chest instinctively, at the last second managing to avoid touching it so he doesn’t push the shard in further. He watches the trolls spar from his vantage point, seeing a familiar blue one smashing into the others lined up for wrestling practice.

His chest still hurts. Partly because of the damaged amulet. But also because—

“You’re thinking hard over here,” Claire murmurs, sidling up alongside him.

“Yeah,” he smiles softly, glad to be reunited with her. Their date in what will one day be Arcadia had been a wonderful, quiet moment in what's been a torrent of insanity. But now, they're back in Dwoza, watching the trolls prepare for the Battle of Killahead Bridge, and the familiarity of some of them is almost painful. His smile drops at the thought, and he motions toward the crowd in front of them. “I just… didn’t think about how we’d see him again.”

Draal charges at one of the trolls—a small, twiggy one—who promptly screams and runs away, only to be bowled over by him anyway. Draal rises and laughs, raising his arms victoriously above him.

Jim barks out a laugh, bittersweet. “God, I forgot how much of a jerk he was when we first met.”

“The first time I met him, I scared myself so bad I knocked myself out,” Claire offers up the story, smiling.

“I remember, he started dangling you behind my mom’s back! I had to wave him away and distract her!” he chuckles. “Don’t worry, when I met Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!!, I passed out, too. It’s crazy, meeting them all for the first time.”

“For them, this _is_ the first time,” she reminds him gently. "Even if they don't know it."

He looks over at Draal again, who’s currently declaring his intent to beat up any and all trolls who dare face him. “I miss him. He’s standing right in front of us, and I miss him," he murmurs.

“You know my son?” a voice behind them says.

He and Claire both startle, too on-edge from all the recent fighting, and turn to face—

“Kanjigar,” Jim breathes out, awed.

Kanjigar’s eyes widen, and he takes in the armored half-troll and human girl. “Do you know me, as well?” he asks.

He looks larger in real life, Jim thinks, than his ghost ever did. Exchanging a glance with Claire, he offers the troll an awkward shrug. “Sort of? Mostly by reputation.”

(It’s only kind of a lie.)

“I have done nothing of repute, nor has my son,” Kanjigar says, laughing wryly. “No matter how much he likes to think so. The most any of us have done for a long time is hide, from Gunmar and from Arthur. Two tyrants.” He jerks his head up to indicate the latter, who stands at the mouth of one of Dwoza’s higher caves, conferring with Vendel. “Vendel does not trust him, and nor do I. So tell me, troll that trusts humans, and human that shows love for trolls,” he inclines his head toward Jim, then Claire, “what makes you so different? Why should I trust you?”

“You have no reason to,” Claire says, her voice quiet. She hugs onto Jim’s arm a bit tighter, and he wraps the other arm around her shoulders, four fingers holding on tight, a calming presence against her skin. “No human has been kind to you for a long time.”

Kanjigar shrugs knowingly. “Humans are too often ruled by fear of what they do not understand. But the people of Camelot do not attack us—only their knights, who are commanded by their king. I do not trust Arthur, to be sure. But you have escaped his propaganda?” his voice lilts up at the end, a question seeking an answer.

Claire nods. “I am not from here. We,” she gestures to both of them, and Jim smiles, “are not from here. We are from… far away. Where Camelot is not the greatest kingdom on earth. Where its ideas are not universally accepted.”

“I see.” He pauses for a beat, then smiles. “Well. You freed the trolls from Arthur’s dungeon, and the outsider Callista tells me that the ‘scrawny one called Jim’ was essential in saving them afterward. You have helped our people. I find that to be no reason to bear you ill-will. There are those who do not see that, but I do.”

“Thank you,” Jim finds his voice. Claire echoes his words, but Kanjigar waves off the sentiment, turning back to Draal mid-fight with a fond, complex look on his face.

“My son may not see it yet, but that wisdom will come with time. He’s a good troll, but still so young.” Kanjigar reaches forward and pats Jim on the back. It’s gentle, but the wound in his chest still stings from the jostling, and Jim winces. “You _are_ rather tiny," he sizes him up, "but you seem to be a formidable warrior. I am glad you have found your way to us, in such a crucial time.”

“Me too.”

Kanjigar leaves them with a smile, and Claire whacks Jim in the arm, lightly. She’s careful to do it on the opposite side of his injury, but still—

“Ow!”

“Sorry!” her voice trills in excitement as she beams up at him. “I’m sorry, but that was _Kanjigar_! The Courageous! I can’t believe we just met him, in the flesh! Well, stone. That was so weird. Cool! But weird.”

Jim rubs at his arm delicately, watching the troll walk away. “I never imagined he’d be so… kind. He was so hardened, as a spirit.”

“Being a Trollhunter is hard,” Claire says lowly. “It changes you, I guess.”

He reaches subconsciously for the shard in the amulet again. “I know.”

Better than anyone alive, past or present, he knows.

His eyes trail after Kanjigar as the troll makes his way over to his son, quickly and cleanly beating Draal in hand-to-hand combat. Unlike how he would have reacted to defeat at another’s hands, Draal stands up from being knocked down and laughs heartily, exchanging smiles with his father. Jim can see the hero-worship in Draal’s eyes, the same that was present nine hundred years later, when he criticized the choice to bequeath his father’s mantle to a human instead of him.

“If I hadn’t been there, the amulet really would have chosen Draal,” he says, more to himself than to Claire. “Merlin showed me, once. An alternate future, where I wasn’t chosen.”

“And they would have lost,” Claire reaches up to cup his face in one hand, drawing his attention to her instead of the past in front of them. “They needed _you_. _Your_ human heart. And Draal came to accept that, in time. He supported you like no one else did. He… he gave his life to give us a chance.”

"I know," he repeats. He’ll never forget the horrifyingly peaceful look on Draal’s face when he fell in the crystal caves, the stone creeping up his skin as he tried to buy Jim more time.

If he had just been stronger, faster… he clenches his fists, then exhales, closing his eyes. He tries to drink in Claire’s touch, the comfort of it, placing his hand over hers. The contrast of his blue skin against hers doesn’t bother him as much anymore, but he still can’t help noticing it when he opens his eyes again. She looks at him beseechingly, waiting for him to say something.

“I never wanted anyone to die for me.” His voice breaks, despite himself, and she makes a shushing sound. He tries to keep the desperation in his next words from becoming too obvious. “Do you think—if we change things here, do you think…?”

His question never finishes, but she shakes her head anyway. “I don’t know if Draal will survive our time-meddling or not. Morgana’s still alive. She’ll still make Angor Rot her servant, which means Gunmar can use him in the future to fight us in the caves. When we get back— _if_ we get back—Draal might still be gone,” she tells him.

He can feel his face crumpling. He knows it must look strange, the two of them clinging to each other, mourning, while the trolls celebrate their training. He can hear trolls and knights alike cheering as they spar each other, can hear Lancelot and Steve barking out orders. There are people all around. Someone must be watching.

But Claire pulls him down into a hug, and he doesn’t care how strange it looks.

“Who he is now isn’t the same as when you meet him,” she whispers into his ear as he wraps his arms around her and hugs her tightly. “I know you look at him now and think about the people that you could have saved, but there’s nothing you could have done. For him, or for Vendel.”

His heart staggers in his chest. It had been hard to see Vendel, too. To see everyone they've lost, vibrant and brilliant and _alive_ without ever even knowing that death is coming. “All of it, for me—”

“Not just you,” her voice is firm. “For the cause. For defeating Gunmar. And you did. And if we fix the past, it’ll go back to the way it was—the way it should be. You _are_ Gunmar’s Bane, Jim. They didn’t die for nothing.”

He squeezes his eyes shut. God, _Claire_. She’s stronger than he could ever be, and he needs that strength, always. He clutches her a little tighter and takes a moment to compose himself.

“Technically, it’s ‘won’t’ die for nothing,” he forces himself to say after a long moment. He infuses the words with an upbeat chuckle, but it falls flat, echoing wrongly in his ears. “Hasn’t happened yet.”

“I _really_ hate time travel,” Claire huffs, and he laughs again, this time for real.

A troll announces that Merlin and his apprentice have returned, with the new weapon needed to defeat Gunmar. A crowd starts to form. Claire moves to pull away, but he tugs her closer. He needs this. Just another second in her hold, to grant him the resolve he needs to get them through this. He tightens his mouth in a grim line, determined, when she melts back into his touch, as trusting and loving as ever.

No matter what they've lost, he has so many things still worth protecting. He has to do whatever he can to save the trolls during the upcoming battle. He has to get her back to the present, no matter what happens to him or the amulet. They have to succeed.

“We’re gonna win Killahead. And we're going to go back to the present, and save everyone we left behind,” he vows. The shard in his chest stings just then, as if to remind him that he has no way to escape its corruption when they return. But they have to get back first. That’s what’s most important.

Maybe they can’t save Draal, even now, when he’s right in front of them. But they can save the others—they can save their future.

Claire smiles and presses their foreheads together, leaning in for a brief kiss. “You’re right. We are.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! If you did, please consider leaving a comment! :)


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